Jeweller held for robbing another jeweller of Rs 9.2 lakh

Manoj Jain was the mastermind behind the crime that occurred on Monday morning; hatched the plot to pay bookies the money he had lost in cricket betting

Investigation in a case, wherein a jeweller was robbed of gold ornaments worth Rs 14 lakh, revealed that it was his counterpart who hatched the plot to clear the debts he was neck-deep in, owing to his habit of betting on cricket matches. The probe also exposed that the jeweller who was robbed had lied about the amount of jewellery stolen, so that he could claim extra money from the insurance firm.

P Jain, who owns a shop in Zaveri Bazaar, was attacked by three of the accused on Monday morning while he was on his way to Santacruz station from his Prabhat colony residence. The accused hit Jain on the face with a rod and made away with the bag containing jewellery. A case was registered at the Vakola police station.

In his statement, Jain claimed the stolen bag contained gold ornaments worth Rs 14 lakh. He is currently recuperating in Lilavati Hospital where he underwent a reconstructive surgery yesterday. Based on the complaint filed by Jain, officials of the Crime Branch swung into action and arrested the mastermind Manoj Jain (39), and his accomplices Hiral Nair (20), Raj Chaudhary (22), Alim Sayyed (20) and Siraj Khan (19).

Crime Branch officers told the Vakola police that they had fully returned the valuables that were robbed off Jain. The true value of the recovery was Rs 9.2 lakh gold ornaments worth Rs 4 lakh and Rs 5.2 lakh in cash. The recovery amount stumped the Vakola police, as Jain claimed he had lost valuables worth Rs 14 lakh, not mentioning any cash.

White lieSensing that something was amiss, Vakola police questioned Jain and his son Bharat. The duo confessed to lying and said they did it to get extra money from the insurance firm. They claimed it was the reason why they did not mention the cash while filing the FIR, and had assumed that the police would never be able to arrest the robbers.

SI Vinayak Mulay from Vakola station said, “We will take supplementary statement of the complainant, as he had given a false statement about the valuables to claim insurance.” Interrogation of the accused revealed that Manoj would bet heavily on cricket matches and owed bookies a lot money. With bookies breathing down his throat for money, Manoj decided to target Jain. “Manoj was the one who kept a watch on Jain,” said Mulay.

Sniffed outThe Vakola police used sniffer dogs to nail the accused. After rounding up all the suspects, they were lined up at the police grounds in Kalina. The dogs were made to sniff belongings the the accused they forgot at the spot after attacking P Jain. Based on the belongings, the dogs sniffed out the trio. All 5 were produced in court on Thursday, and put in police custody.